One life and the many deaths of Rohith Vemula

Mother of Rohith Vemula continues to fights for justice, sparking protests and calls for accountability.

Trigger warning: The following article contains references to suicide. Please avoid reading it if you are disturbed by the subject 

Radhika Vemula, 57, has spent the past 24 hours in turmoil. It’s 5.20 p.m. on a Saturday. She steps out of a hired cab and walks into the intimidating University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus. The guards don’t stop the woman wearing a white sari with a shawl. Everyone knows her as Rohith Vemula’s mother, a single woman who has been fighting for justice for her son. Rohith ended his life in a hostel room of UoH on January 17, 2016, after leaving behind a suicide note that alluded to caste discrimination. 

On May 3 this year, the Telangana Police submitted a 60-page closure report in the Telangana High Court that detailed the circumstances of the death of the 26-year-old, a PhD scholar. The report says the reasons for the suicide were “personal”, thereby negating allegations that a series of other factors, such as the withdrawal of his fellowship money amounting to ₹1,77,403, and him being barred from hostel and public spaces in the university had anything to do with it. As the report circulated on WhatsApp, Radhika began receiving calls from journalists and Rohith’s former classmates.

Angry students of UoH marched around campus, shouting slogans and demanding accountability. By 7.30 p.m. that day, another message began circulating on social media: “Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is going to meet Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohith Vemula on Saturday morning.” The students then retreated to their rooms to strategise.

“My son’s degrees are original. He was a brilliant student. He got scholarships in both arts and science streams. Very few students can match what he did. The police report suggesting that he ended his life because he could not cope with studies is obnoxious,” says Radhika, who has been carrying on a sustained campaign for justice for her son.

On campus, Rohith was affiliated to the Ambedkar Students Association. On August 3, 2015, the president of the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Susheel Kumar posted on Facebook: “ASA goons are talking about hooliganism — feeling funny”. The ASA students confronted Kumar, who was forced to delete the post.

The chronology of events takes on different perspectives, depending on whether they are police officials, university officials, Union Education Ministry officials, or ASA or ABVP students. The sequence of events climaxed with the Executive Council meeting headed by the then Vice Chancellor P. Appa Rao deciding: “The above students (Dontha Prashanth, Rohith Vemula, Pedapudi Vijay Kumar, Sheshaiah Chemudugunta and Velpula Sunkanna) are permitted to be seen only in the respective schools/ departments/ centres, the library and academic seminars/ conferences/ workshops of their project. They are not permitted to participate in the student union elections, enter the hostels, administration building and other common places in groups.”